Interview
with Internet Marketing
Success Story: Corey Rudl
Marty
Foley, publisher of ProfitInfo Email Newsletter, interviews
Internet marketing guru Corey Rudl. For many savvy online
entrepreneurs, Corey needs no introduction.
[Marty]:
Corey, as one who has been extremely successful as an online
marketer, please tell us how you got started using the Internet
as a marketing tool.
[Corey]:
I started marketing online in the fall of 1994. It was quite
a fluke. In my course, I explain that we published my book,
"Car Secrets Revealed", and started selling it offline.
The results were pathetic. We thought we had a winning formula
and it was barely breaking even. I spent about $20,000 offline
trying to promote it... and it flopped.
I
took the advice of a friend that was setting up an automotive
site on the net and he helped me get a very simple web page
online. I saw a few sales trickle in and then took more
interest in it, promoting the book online in my spare time.
[Marty]:
What are some of the online ventures you are involved in?
[Corey]:
I own four different businesses that now generate over $5,200,000
in online sales every year. I have interests in many other
online projects, as I have done work for clients for a portion
of the profits I generate. I also have a clientele base
that hires me for online business advice at $640 per hour.
[Marty]:
Your book "Car Secrets Revealed" has done very well for
you online. Can you give some details on it?
[Corey]:
Car Secrets Revealed was my first success on the net. Within
9 months of truly starting to promote it heavily, it became
the #1 best selling car book online (using the unique promotional
techniques I teach). It generated over $140,000 in net profit
in those months. To this day (almost 3 years later), it
is still the #1 best selling car book on the Internet.
The
site is at http://www.carsecrets.com/ if you want to check
it out. Everything I put on the page and everything I say
is there for a reason... We have tried many different web
page designs and concepts, and this one works the best (I
explain why in my Internet Marketing course at: http://www.marketingtips.com. I can't explain
it here, as it would fill up about 20 pages to cover just
the details on that topic alone).
[Marty]:
You were recently on the Maury Povich TV show in connection
with your businesses. Can you recap for those of us that
missed it?
[Corey]:
There is not much to say. Basically, because of my exposure
on the Internet and having the #1 best selling car book
online, they found me through the net and invited me to
appear on the show as their "car expert" to explain a few
tips and secrets to their viewing audience on car buying
and the shams and scams with car repairs. It was a good
interview, but what a long flight back... 10 hours on a
plane. Whew!
[Marty]:
How long did it take your first online venture to start
making a profit?
[Corey]:
The first month the sales trickled in, so I technically
made a profit within 30 days... but nothing to live off
of. Since I was one of the first group of commercial businesses
online... there was a lot of "trying everything", so it
took me almost 18 months before I started to see a full-time
income. I spent literally 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week
trying different techniques, copy, and ideas online. Now
that I know most every trick and tip there is, I can literally
take almost any business online and make it turn a very
healthy profit in a few months.
As
more and more people got online, many of the standard marketing
techniques were getting overused and becoming ineffective...
so I developed "twists" to most of them to ensure they still
made a profit when everyone was using the "regular" approaches
to online marketing. The results: the techniques I use to
market online are very unique.
[Marty]:
How did you learn about what it takes to succeed?
[Corey]:
At first a lot of trial and error. I took a lot of the concepts
and ideas I got from the very expensive seminars I used
to attend and material I bought (I was a Jay Abraham, Gary
Halbert and Ted Nicholas fan, and most of their seminars
were $7000 and up.) I took those ideas - and with a little
ingenuity and creativity - adapted them to the net (while
in the midst of developing my own winning formulas for online
success). I came up with formulas that work like wildfire
online.
[Marty]:
I recognize the names of those other well-known direct marketers
that you have learned from. It's apparent that your formulas
work. Which avenues are paying off the best for you?
[Corey]:
I have never had an online business that *has not* made
a very healthy profit. As I mentioned, my four online businesses
combined now generate over $5,200,000 in sales online per
year! And the beauty of it is that I started it myself as
a one-man operation. I now have had to hire five employees
to take care of the paper work and customer service... but
have you ever heard of a retail business that has 5.2 million
dollars in sales with only a few employees? No! They have
at least 15-20 employees. That is the beauty of the net:
you can automate everything so your overhead is incredibly
low.
[Marty]:
What specific types of online tools are you using successfully?
[Corey]:
That is a very difficult question to answer, because there
is no one tool that is responsible for making me a fortune
online.
My
techniques show you how to generate multiple small streams
of income, and then automate those streams of income so
you can move to the next. Let me explain...
I
would teach you a marketing technique that will make you
$1000 a month in net profit. You then automate that so it
generates that $1000 whether you are there or not. You then
move on to the next marketing technique, and it makes you
$1500 a month. And once that is in place (which takes you
about 2-3 weeks), you automated it and move on the next
week, and so on.
The
concept here is that you are making small streams of income
from many different directions (all of which are automated)...
but if you add up those streams of income you are looking
at $10,000 to $15,000 a month in net profit, which is over
$100,000 a year. The best part is that if one technique
fails because something on the net changes, you don't have
to worry; you still have other streams of income that are
making you money every month.
[Marty]:
Do you do all of your business online, or do your online
marketing efforts supplement your off-line business efforts?
[Corey]:
100% online. I am a specialist at online sales and marketing.
I have become one of the most respected online marketers
on the Internet... and for good reason: I can prove my successes.
If someone asks me to help them with their magazine advertising,
I simply tell them that there are better people than me
out there for offline marketing and they should see them
instead. I do what I do best... and that is online marketing,
so I concentrate *all* my efforts on that!
[Marty]:
What mistakes have you made?
[Corey]:
There are so many, I would fill up your entire newsletter
listing them. Let me just say that I have wasted hundreds
of thousands of dollars trying techniques that did not work
(but from everyone I learned something very important).
But that is the "price of education" as I say.
[Marty]:
What major mistakes do you see other Internet entrepreneurs
make?
[Corey]:
There are a lot of them and I discuss them in great detail
in the course, but I will briefly mention a few here.
-
Having an ineffective web site that does not turn visitors
into sales. This is a very tricky thing to do (that
most people do not understand), and I devote a lot of
time in my course in how to make a web site profitable.
-
Putting all your eggs in one basket. Trying one technique
and thinking it will make you a fortune. You need to
diversify your marketing efforts into different promotions
to see which ones pull the most net profit, and then
concentrate on those.
-
Having a poor "sales process" in the marketing campaign.
That is the manner in which you interest the client
into coming to your site, then lead him into a good
rapport with yourself, and then - and only then - asking
for the order. Most people break the link at some point
and lose the sale. That is why most sites only see one
sale out of every 200-400 visitors (and some even worse).
[Marty]:
Are there any other tips or suggestions you would like to
give others that want to profit from the Internet?
[Corey]:
Research, research, research.... Read/study everything you
can on online marketing and learn about it before you jump
in. For example, I hear stories every day about people that
"heard" bulk emailing was very profitable. They may spend
$1000 on the different software, only to find out they were
doing it very ineffectively (for example, indiscriminately
spamming, rather than ethically using bulk opt-in email)
and don't make a single cent.
Then
there are other stories of online success with MLM... people
spend months using the wrong techniques and end up not making
a penny. The list just goes on and on.
Make
sure you understand what you are getting into with any business
online so that your first attempt will be your success!
[Marty]:
I agree, Corey. Too many are trying to "re-invent the wheel"
instead of learning how others before them have achieved
success. I like how Benjamin Franklin put it, when he said:
"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."
Thanks for letting me interview you, Corey.
Corey
Rudl gets over 4 million visitors to his websites yearly,
does 5.2 million dollars in sales online each year (yes,
that is $5,200,000), and personally makes hundreds of thousands
of dollars from his online businesses... all from his one
small office. So listen to what he has to say as he knows
what he is talking about when it comes to starting and promoting
a business on the internet. Visit his site at Internet Marketing Center® where he reveals
all his unconventional tips, tricks and techniques with
examples so you can learn the most efficient and fastest
ways to make money on the internet.